#9 Ric Flair wins the Rumble and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Back in 1991, Ted Turner had purchased Jim Crockett Productions, which included the contracts of many NWA wrestlers. One of those former NWA talents was none other than the Nature Boy Ric Flair.
Unfortunately for Ted Turner, the man he put in charge of managing talent was Jim Herd, former KPLR Tv St. Louis station manager. Herd's only wrestling experience was that an independently produced wrestling program, Wrestling at the Chase, happened to air on his network.
Herd wanted to remake Ric Flair, thinking he was 'boring.' Flair responded by saying he would just leave for WWE. Herd sent him packing, but refused to repay Flair the 10,000 dollar deposit the Nature Boy had on the WCW world title belt. The result was Flair showing up on WWE television with WCW's world title in tow.
He would enter the Royal Rumble at three, making him a long shot for the victory. Flair managed, like Michaels, to defy the odds, and would up winning not only the Rumble, but the WWE world title, which had been held up for the Rumble winner.
Once Flair had the WWE title, he quickly renounced his WCW belt and it was never seen on television again.